That'll Be The Day
by PuMpEd Up KiCkS kId
Summary: Cat Wilkins is a liar, a pick pocket, and a gang member. But she's hardly something to be worried about, it's the other members to be scared of. At 15 and a half the young teenagers life couldn't be more hectic with a loony dad and a hard working mom, a reputation to keep, oh and the new found attention she received from boys. Summer of 1959 could not be more confusing.


I haven't smiled in two years.

Well I have, a smile is impossible to keep from happening, it's an instinct almost, you _have _to do it no matter how much you don't want to. I don't like to smile because I have absolutely nothing to smile about. I have nothing particularly to be sad or upset about, I was brought up in a relatively normal household, besides my dad has a few moments. A shrink said it's just something fucked up in his brain and his outbursts only will happen every once in a great while. They're the reason we ever moved to Castle Rock two years ago, and they're getting more and more frequent. No one is allowed in my house anymore by mother's orders, though no one ever was before anyways besides back then it was just sort of an unspoken rule.

But again, that's no reason to be unhappy with life. I guess I was just always unhappy though. I always wanted more than what I was provided with, which most humans are stricken with. But my urge was always there but was never fulfilled. I wasn't a bad child or anything, I still had innocence in my body, but I had a bad group of acquaintances because I hardly doubt I could call them friends. Friends or not they were what I had and it was a rush.

* * *

The first day of summer of 1959 was a particularly hot day for Maine, especially for this area. I was 15 and half years old and a sophomore at Castle Rock High where only 309 students attended. I walked right out of that school house building and tore the ribbon from my hair, letting the blonde curls fall away from my face. I wasn't a ugly girl, I wasn't particularly plain either, I got attention from the Cobras- The boys I ran with- but also some of the hottest guys in town and that was enough to be happy with my blue eyes and fragile, freckled skin.

"It's about time you got out of that faggot house." Vince called to me from his car. He was smoking a cigarette and leaning on the driver's door like he had been waiting forever when I knew he had been only there for maybe 5 minutes. He tapped his cigarette to rid the ashes and got into the car while I jumped into the back seat slinging my bag off my shoulder and onto the dirty floor. Charlie Hogan was sitting in the passenger seat enjoying his own smoke.

"Ain't my fault you don't attend that 'faggot house' anymore." I told him leaning back as he sped off. I was younger than every single members of the Cobras and I was the only girl. But I had earned my place with them after letting Eyeball Chambers carve a snake into my left arm and when my mother had seen it she damn near fainted. I hide it now under a leather jacket that hung nearly at the length of my dresses. It used to be Ace's but he jacked a brand new one last October and I got his old one and being tiny as I was it was too big for me.

"We don't attend because we are in classes with retards." Charlie clarified and I laughed slightly staring at the people blurring past. I hardly knew anybody outside the gang besides a few girls here and there and their younger siblings.

"You are retards Charlie why do you think they put you there?" I questioned him with a smirk. He turned in his seat glaring at me. Charlie was a cute boy but probably the dumbest of the group.

"You better shut your god damn mouth Cat." He growled out me. Yes, my nickname was _Cat._ To be fair though my full name was Catherine, but I would have preferred something different. But they say that I was as cunning as a cat and that I had a silver tongue. That's a shame isn't? Oh well.

"Or you'll what?" I hissed back getting so close to his face I could feel his breath on the tip of my nose. I wasn't scared of Charlie and probably never will be, he had enough good sense in his head to know that it wasn't right to hit a girl years younger and 40-60 pounds lighter than him.

"Both of you shut it before I knock your fucking heads together." Vince warned pulling into the junk yard. The junk yard was where the Cobras and I hung about, it wasn't the best place on earth and trust me when I was first introduced here I didn't think it was anything special. It was better than nothing though. Nothing ever changed either, nothing was ever put in the yard and nothing was ever taken out. Hell, there was still a dent in one of the old cars hoods where I smacked my forehead while wrestling with Fuzzy. I couldn't see straight for three days.

"What are you homos spitting about?" Billy yelled at us from his perch on a fence post. Billy was the first Cobra I had ever met considering he was my next door neighbor. His little brother Vern was a real sweetheart and so were his friends, I mean of course they were annoying, their 12 year old boys, but I didn't think they needed to be beaten up by people twice their size almost weekly.

"She called me a retard." Charlie accused me pointing a finger right in my face. I pushed it away looking as innocent as I could muster.

"You are a retard Charlie." Ace said sharply and I couldn't help but laugh at Charlie's expression. He wasn't going to dare oppose Ace, few things in this world actually had the tendency to scare me. Bugs, bodies of water or swimming in general, and an angry Ace Merrill. That is something everyone in Castle Rock should fear, and probably does no matter how much they would like to hide it. I shut up when Charlie sent a glare my way and pulled myself up onto the fence. Another reason I had the nickname of Cat was because I had good balance, I walked down the top of the fence and swung into the branches of a small Oak tree at the end that's branches were low enough to reach from the ground. "Woah Spider monkey if you fall and break your neck we ain't doing nothing but leaving your body here."

"Of course and the next day I'll still be laying here because nobody else waste's there time coming to the _junkyard." _I replied back smartly and he quirked a blonde eyebrow at me in response as he took a sip of his beer, though I could swear I saw the side of his lip raise in a smirk. The thing is, I was terrified of an angry Ace, and truth be told he did get annoyed with my smart ass come backs sometimes, he never got _angry _with me. He never hit me but had raised a hand in warning to me and that was enough for me to back off. I had been beaten up in the beginning a few times to prove I was tough enough for this group by Eyeball and Fuzzy. It was nothing personal, they just needed to see if I was worth it since I wasn't no whore and I was smart enough not to drink till I'm drunk.

"Get down from there you look like a faggot squirrel." Eyeball taunted and I swung my foot down thumping him in the back of the head. He turned and glared and I swung upside down so I was face to face with him besides you know the fact of being upside down. I squinted at him with a slight smirk.

"Well I think you should go look long and hard in a mirror and come to terms with the definition of Faggot being in fact _Eyeball Chambers." _I remarked patting his slightly stubbly face twice. I swung back up before his fist could connect with my jaw. I climbed further up just out of his reach smiling wickedly. "Look at this, you have a dick so far up your ass that you can't even jump."

"You little bitch. The second you come down here I'm going to pummel you into the dirt." He yelled after me and I could only laugh. Now the thing is Eyeball wasn't afraid to hit a girl if he thought she deserved it, so I might as well come down and get it over with right? I stepped down and he grabbed my ankle and yanked me to the ground. My head whacked against the ground where only Eyeball and Billy could see me on the side of the fence but they turned into blurs. I closed my eyes trying to get the dizziness to go away. "Oh fuck."

"Nice job Eyeball you've killed the girl." Billy said. Eyeball looked over the fence at everyone else who had quirked eyebrows.

"You are such a little punk Cat." He growled pulling me back up by my shirt. I opened my eyes back up and glared at him.

"Please tell that to my bruised temple jerk off." I grumbled pushing him off me angrily. I pulled myself onto the top of the fence, clutching the old wood so I wouldn't fall as I sat down. "Why does Karma hate me?"

"Because you're annoying." Ace told me with a smirk. I glared at him and crossed my arms over my chest, I will admit that at a point in my life I did have the slightest crush on Ace, but I had a boyfriend now so it was a different story.

"Please you know you love me." I replied holding a hand to my chest, he only lifted an eyebrow with the same stupid smirk and shook his head. He knocked his beer bottle against the hood of the car he was leaning on.

"Yeah to get us drinks." He stated flatly. I pretty much supplied the Cobras with their alcohol since I could get the store owner to practically do anything. I had a nitch for swaying people to give me things or do things for me; it wasn't hard I guess I was just believable with my reasons for needing packs of beer. I pulled at the hem of my skirt and jumped down from the fence. "Ain't much else though."

"Please I'm good for other things." I smiled seductively taking a cigarette from Charlie's mouth and placing it between my lips and taking a drag. "But I'm not a whore. So that's out of the question."

"Like I said good to get us drinks." Ace repeated jumping into his car. "Now who wants to go play some mailbox baseball?" I waved him off with my hand.

"Can't. My dad is home alone." I sighed, my dad's situation kept me from doing so much it was unreal.

"Can't that Looney stay home alone?" Billy questioned jumping into the back seat. I frowned and thumped him on the back of the head climbing in the passenger seat forcing Eyeball to get in the back. I hated whenever someone made a remark about my father. He wasn't crazy, he just had some issues that weren't particularly normal.

"Shut the fuck up Billy before I knock those teeth out of your head." I growled at him. They knew about my dad, it was hard not to. I mean I had been known as the looney's daughter since just a few months after I moved here and when my parents got in fights or my dad got out of control the screaming could be heard throughout this half of the town. I looked over at Ace as he started the engine and batted my eye lashes and pouted slightly, "If you could drop me off that would be great."

"You really need to stop doing that fucking eye thing. Your face is going to be stuck like that." He told me lighting a cigarette and paying no attention to the wheel as we drove. I smiled and leaned back, it was an unspoken yes, even in The Cobras I could get my way pretty easily. I mean it wasn't really hard to persuade them anyways most of them were complete idiots, but they were my idiots in a way so it was okay. "I'm serious, one of these days you're gonna pull that dumb ass face and _bam! _And you're gonna be fucking stuck like that. I swear."

"Well at least I'm cute. If your face froze up the way it usually is that would be a damn shame wouldn't it?" I told him with a laugh. Eyeball, Charlie and Billy started to laugh but stopped as soon as Ace gave them a look. I continued to laugh though; I wasn't scared of Ace as much as they were. "Aw c'mon Ace you know it's true."

"You are such a smart ass little bitch. I don't get why I do stuff for you. Hell I don't even remember how you even came around." He sighed hitting his hand against the steering wheel to the beat of the Jerry Lee Lewis song on the radio.

"Well my parents fucked each other and left me on a doorstep and-" I started to explain but I was cut off.

"I know that you idiot." I smirked, it was fun getting him a bit annoyed, just not the full extent. At least they could all take my smart attitude or I would come home every day black and blue.

"Wait your adopted?" Charlie asked and we all looked at him. Eyeball even thumped him in the back of the head and so did Billy right after. "What?"

"Are you an idiot Charlie my parents are from like Italy or some shit and I look like I could have lived my life in the arctic circle. Seriously is there anything in that noggin' of yours?" I said sharply turning forwards again as we pulled up on the curb. I jumped out of the side and waved slightly, "See ya guys in a few hours I guess."

They sped off after that and I walked up to my front door and opened it slowly. I wasn't actually particularly supposed to be home with only my dad, my mom thought it was unsafe for me and forbid me to be here. But I came home anyways because I want him to be okay and not lonely. When I was younger and none of the Cobras could drive and none of us could sneak alcohol or smokes my mom used to lock me in the hall closet when my dad went off. I don't tell anyone about that but I'm clausterphobic because of it, I could be in there hours at a time. I still shudder sometimes when I think about it too much, it was to keep me safe, I know that, but it was fucking scary.

"Hey Daddy." I greeted my father kindly resting my elbows on the back of his arm chair. I pecked his cheek with a smile but his face stayed stony.

"Hi Catherine." He answered, sometimes I thought he didn't even know who I am. He looked up at me with his dark eyes, "Is it time for school yet?"

"I got out about an hour ago dad. It's summer time now." I answered him. His eyes widened and he looked at the newspaper folded in his lap.

"Well if ya look at that! June 18th 1959! Smart girl, getting your freshman year done!" I smiled faintly at his words, at least he knew what grade I was in. He waved me off and I backed away as he threw the newspaper down. "Now go do your homework! I need to watch my shows!" I nodded and turned towards the hallway and headed upstairs.

This you would think would be an average conversation. Besides the fact that I had just told him that I was done with school and therefore wouldn't be doing any homework. But also because he wasn't watching T.V, he was just staring at the blank wall above the mantle. I sighed as I dragged myself into my room and threw myself face first into my bed. I missed my dad and how things used to be.

I had a few hours to kill before I had to leave before my mom came home. I always left just before she came home to make it seem like I was never here. I rolled onto my side and thought about what Ace had said in the car. He didn't remember how I met them all, but I could remember it clearly.

_I was 12 years old, my curls were kept up pretty framing my face and a ribbon was tied on the back of my head. I wore a skirt that went to my knees and a nice sweater with matching Mary Jane shoes. I was sitting on my front porch the day after we moved it, the summer was closing and I was nervous because the following Monday I had to start school here. _

"_Hey whose this?" A boy called from the lawn next door. I had noticed the group of boys earlier but I had chosen to ignore them. They were older and I was shy, completely and utterly. I smiled slightly and turned away. _

"_That's my neighbor." Another boy answered. I looked at him and remembered seeing him yesterday, he motioned me to come over. I was scared slightly and could feel a slight heat in my cheeks as I got up and made my way over. They were all at least 14 or 15 years old and I hardly reached the shortest ones shoulder. "You move in yesterday?"_

"_Uh yeah." I answered apprehensively staring at the ground. _

"_Where from?" Another asked. I thought he looked dumb with his hat on backwards to be completely honest, was that a Maine thing?_

"_Boston," I said looking at him again. "You're hat look stupid on backwards." He glared at me slightly while a few friends of his laughed. The taller, blonde one smirked slightly kicking off the fence he was leaning on with his arms crossed over his chest. _

"_Oh we got a smart ass over here." He jeered at me nudging his friends while smirking down at me. "Must be the Irish in her."_

"_I'm French you idiot." I told him back, his smirk fell for a instant and I felt a sudden fear. Why did I say that? Even his friends gave me looks like that was a bad Idea. But it regained its presence and he nodded down at me._

"_I like you kid, my name is Ace, that's Eyeball, Vince, Charlie, Billy, and Fuzzy." He said pointing out his companions, he looked at me curiously with his blue eyes that beared a certain anger behind them. "And your name is?"_

"_Catherine." I told him with a slight nod, glad for the acceptance._

"_Well cat," He said and I scrunched up my face a little at the nickname, "You're going to hang out with us now got it?" Something told me I wasn't going to question his authority. He laughed, "Are you scared of me?"_

"_N-No." I shook my head and he laughed again._

"_Well good thing," He sighed kicking the dirt and leaning down slightly so he could say something in my ear, "But you better be. Now c'mon guys let's go." I was left shuddering at his words and confused. Why would they even want me in a gang? But something inside was urging me to go forward with it and that's exactly what I did. I got officially accepted into the group a week later after I got beat up twice and back talked the hell out of all of them. I stopped wearing my hair in ribbons all the time and wore dresses that only reached my mid-thigh and chucks._

I sighed deeply and glanced at the clock. 4:30, my mom wasn't due home for another two hours. There was absolutely nothing to do but sleep. I took my clock and winded it for the alarm to go off at 6 and curled up on my side, promptly falling asleep.


End file.
